In a video meeting conducted over a computer network, such as, the Internet, images on the monitor screen of a presenter are transmitted over the computer network to those of attendees. The faster the transmission rate, the more effective the meeting. When the network connection between the presenter and the attendee involves a modem, the transmission rate very often becomes intolerably slow. For example, using current technology, it sometimes takes over a minute to transmit a full image over a 56K modem from the presenter to the attendee.
Current technology divided the full image on the monitor screen into numerous regions. Each region is made up of pixels and represented by a 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit, or 32-bit bitmap, depending on the setting of the screen properties of the monitor. Each pixel is represented by a predetermined number of bits, e.g., 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit or 32-bit. The bitmap represents the collective bit representations of all the pixels in a region. The PNG compression algorithm is directly applied to the bitmap of each region. The compressed bitmaps are subsequently transmitted from the presenter to the attendee(s). The compressed bitmaps transmitted in this manner may take a substantial amount of time to reach their intended destinations. Hence, it would be desirable to provide a method and system which is capable of transmitting video data in a more efficient manner so as to reduce transmission time.